Out from the barrio you hear my rhythm from your radio

All 19 mind numbing minutes. Now it’s coming out that this Republican Governor who made a big deal out of refusing TARP money, only to be over ruled by his State Legislature (because it was such an ignorant grandstanding idea in the first place) has been flying to Argentina on the South Carolina taxpayer’s dime to see his little Coochi Coochi Coo. And The State had the emails since last December? WTF? “attempts to verify the e-mails â€” from an anonymous source â€” were fruitless, until Wednesday”. Wow, there’s some crack journalism. Or some journalists on crack. A ferret could have verified those in six months. Or maybe they were just waiting for the Fine Governor of the Great State of South Carolina and his wandering willy to find their way to an airport so that a reporter could catch him getting off a plane from Buenos Aires… Has it really been six months since he saw her? Not to worry, the Christian Right’s own little version of Skull and Bones was there to help him out. These guys do whatever they want (Ensign is a member too) and somehow it’s supposed to be forgiven because they pay lip service to the Christian Right. It’s lip service. Or maybe that’s what they’re all getting. When will the middle of this country figure out that they’re being hoodwinked? It’s time to get religion back out of Government and run this damned country like a business. Religion governs the morality of its followers, the State governs the functionality of the society as a whole. The State should not impose nor restrict the religion of the people.

And you know Maria is going to turn out to be Mario.

In other news

Sometimes this place is like the Wild Kingdom. I have an owl. I saw him last year, swooping across the front yard, he scared the crap out of me. I don’t know if he was a spotted owl or a barn owl or a screech owl, but he was pretty magnificent. This summer he’s taken up residence either here or some place very near by and I can hear him calling. I just hope he feasts on the rats and mice in the yard. I back up to a creek and that’s part of the attraction of this property to the Wild Kingdom. While my visitors were still here we could also hear bats in the yard. I brought the dogs in when they started playing their bat games. I don’t need Rita to bring me one of those.

I finished up my last lifting workout Tuesday before the meet on Saturday. As a rule, I lift a lot closer to meets than most other lifters. Conventional wisdom is that you stop lifting 10 days before the meet. That never worked for me. I did it twice and threw in the towel on that one. I do much better to lift clear through the week before and then knock off on Monday or Tuesday of the week I’m going to compete. My cycling coach wanted me to knock off yesterday but I’m riding today, then not again until Tuesday of next week. Last Sunday I came ridiculously close to getting run over. A guy in a white Dodge pick up truck was coming out of the Concord K-Mart at 1:40 on Sunday afternoon. He did not stop, nor did he look to the left before he shot out onto Ayers. Had he looked he would have seen the bright red bicycle with the rider in a bright yellow jersey. Not only did he not look to see me, he continued to pull into traffic in spite of my huge self being right in front of his grill. I was not hit because I swerved away from his truck and then cut to the right. There are certain characteristics of that truck that are unforgettable. God help him if I ever see that truck again.

More jackasses with pick up trucks. I’d said I’d bring in the photojournalism. On an LA Freeway last month. Oh look! You can read the guy’s plates.